Is Ketchup Gluten-Free?

Is Ketchup Gluten-Free?

Your fries and bunless burger are. But the ketchup?

So you have your bunless burger and your double-helping of fries (you know, to make up for the lost carbs). You heap on the ketchup and…oh wait that’s gluten-free right? Is ketchup gluten-free? Or are you messing with your whole meal you already messed with? That discarded bun looks pissed off.

Excellent news: don’t shell out an extra $3 for a brand of gluten-free ketchup that tastes like an insult to fries everywhere, because the red stuff is naturally gluten-free. Old-school ketchup recipes sometimes use flour as a thickener, but modern-day ketchup (the kind we all like, without naming names) relies on other natural thickeners for its signature clingy consistency. While it’s not certified any more, it doesn’t have to be. Even the most stringent ingredient-readers won’t find a trace of gluten.

Speaking of not naming names, Heinz owns Ore-Ida, which produces some of the only non-explicitly labeled gluten-free frozen potato products. Pass those previously forbidden tots and a 32-ouncer of that fine red, if you would.